17th century in the 2008 parade presenting their theme "Our Hearts are Wild for Diamonds" in the 2005 parade presenting their theme "Just Plain Dead" The parade traces back to mid-17th-century roots, blending elements from
Swedish,
Finnish, Irish, English, German, and other European heritages. The parade is related to the
Mummers Play tradition from
Great Britain and
Ireland. Revivals of this tradition are still celebrated annually in
South Gloucestershire, England on
Boxing Day along with other locations in England and in parts of Ireland on
Saint Stephen's Day and also in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador around Christmas.
Swedes and
Finns, early European colonists in the Philadelphia area, brought the custom of visiting neighbors on "Second Day Christmas" (December 26) with them to
Tinicum. This was soon extended through New Year's Day with costumed celebrants loudly parading through the city. They appointed a "speech director", who performed a special dance with a traditional rhyme:
18th century The Mummers derive their name from the Mummers' plays performed in
Philadelphia in the 18th century as part of a wide variety of working class street celebrations around Christmas. By the early 19th century, these coalesced with earlier Swedish customs, including the Christmas neighbor visits and shooting firearms on New Year's Day (although this was common in other countries as well) as well as the
Pennsylvania German custom of
"belsnickling," where adults in disguise questioned children about their behavior during the previous year.
U.S. President George Washington carried on the official custom of New Year's Day calls during the seven years he occupied
President's House in Philadelphia. The Mummers continued their traditions of comic verse in exchange for cakes and ale. Small groups of up to twenty mummers, their faces blackened, went door to door, shooting and shouting, and adapting the English Mummer's play by replacing the character of "King George" with that of "General Washington."
Henry Muhlenberg, writing in 1839, reported, "Men met on the roads in Tinicum and Kingsessing, who were disguised as clowns, shouting at the top of their voices and shooting guns. By the 1880s, unable to suppress the custom, the Philadelphia city government began to pursue a policy of co-option, requiring participants to join organized groups with designated leaders who had to apply for permits and were responsible for their groups’ actions. The earliest documented club, the Chain Gang, had formed in 1840 and Golden Crown first marched in 1876 with cross-town rivals Silver Crown forming soon after. By 1881, a local report said "Parties of paraders" made the street "almost like a masked Ball." In the early years of the official parade, the makeshift costumes of most celebrants were gradually replaced by more elaborate outfits funded by associations' fund-raising efforts. While South Philadelphia (especially
Pennsport) remains one of the most important centers for Mummers traditions and Mummers members, more recent immigrants to the neighborhood from
Asia and
Latin America generally have fewer ties to the parade and tradition. While almost all parade participants are currently white,
African American mummers existed in the past. The all African American Golden Eagle Club, formed in 1866, had 300 members in the 1906 parade, for example. Judges systematically discriminated against black clubs, however, and the last, the
Octavius Catto Club, withdrew after receiving last place in the 1929 parade. The brass bands hired to accompany the Comic Brigades often include black musicians, but do not dress in costume and consider themselves
session musicians rather than Mummers. By 1964, only one African American mummer, Willis Fluelling, remained. As of 2007, a few of the less traditional clubs, such as
Spiral Q Puppet Theater's West Philadelphia Mummers Brigade, were integrated. The comic "wenches" and other female roles in most skits are typically performed by men in drag. The South Philly Vikings ran
Viking Hall in the 1980s and 1990s, the venue today known as 2300 Arena.
21st century As of 2008, the parade cost the city over $1 million each year, including $750,000 for police and parade services and $360,000 in prize money. The 2008 budget crisis led the city to propose closing numerous libraries and firehouses and the scaling back of expenditures for the parade, offering $300,000 for the 2009 parade and nothing for 2010. Funding for the parade during the first decade of the 2000s was provided for several years by
Southwest Airlines, which also took naming rights of the parade, which was called "Southwest Airlines Mummers Parade." Funding for the 2012 parade was provided by
SugarHouse Casino, which renamed the parade to "Sugar House Mummers Parade." In September 2009,
The Bacon Brothers musical duo, composed of Philadelphia natives
Michael and
Kevin Bacon, recorded a special version of their song "New Year's Day" with members of the All-Star String Band. Proceeds from the sale of the CD went to the Save the Mummers Fund. ==Location, time, and route==